


Sleepless Heart

by Philleegirl



Series: Hearts [2]
Category: Shetland (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied Sexual Content, Implied self loathing, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:46:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28510638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philleegirl/pseuds/Philleegirl
Summary: The day had been a shite day. Not just an off day at the bistro or a down day with his holiday lets, it had been complete shite on a whole other level.
Relationships: Duncan Hunter/Jimmy Perez
Series: Hearts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088462
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	Sleepless Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This lives in the universe that I developed in Starving Hearts, but all you really need to know is that Duncan's bistro is open and fully staffed, he and Jimmy are together and they renovated the house to have a bedroom in the loft.  
> Wrote this last night on my phone as I laid in bed unable to sleep. I've used a couple of plots that I was going to use for a longer, trope-ier story, but they were needed to move this along. I am a dialogue write, but to keep with the quietness of this piece I keep it entirely narrative. I hope that it works.  
> Unbetad, unBrit-picked, unScot-picked, so please shout if there are any glaring errors.  
> Also, I suck at titles so... sorry!

The sleet hitting the roof and Jimmy’s deep steady breaths were the only sounds keeping Duncan’s insomnia company as the night wore on to day. The sleet seemed earned, but the more Duncan listened to the gentle reminder of the good man laying with his head pillowed on Duncan's shoulder the darker and lonelier his thoughts became.

The day had been a shite day. Not just an off day at the bistro or a down day with his holiday lets, it had been complete shite on a whole other level. A level that would tomorrow require Jimmy's help in making a missing person's report with the Aberdeen constabulary. His waitresses, Leslee and Kathly, and chef, Mally, had taken advantage of the three days that he had needed to make some upgrades to take a girls trip to Aberdeen. Unfortunately, apparently Kathly had expected a slightly different trip and after an argument with Leslee and Mally, she had taken off. They expected her to at least meet them at the ferry, but she never appeared. Dozens and dozens of calls to her mobile were left unanswered and the other two girls returned alone to the island. 

Mally and Leslee had come straight from the ferry to the bistro and spent most of the day in various weepy states, causing customers to complain about both the service and the food. Duncan assured them that Kathly, who spent as much time in Aberdeen as she could, would be fine, but he had spent every 30 minutes calling her cell until her voicemail was full and finally the phone rang straight to voicemail. He had even tried a phone finder app, but her location service had been turned off.

After the hell that had been the dinner shift, Duncan had just sent everyone home to close himself. As he ushered everyone out the door, he had promised Mally and Leslee that he would get Jimmy to help him with a missing person's report in the morning. Despite his own worry, he tried to reassure everyone that everything would be fine and she would be back waiting tables in the bistro within a couple of days. Deep in his gut he knew the lie even as he spoke it. 

It had taken longer to convince Fiona to head up to her second floor flat, but by the time the new industrial dishwasher and sanitizer was running through its first cycle, he was finally alone. In the empty space the machine was louder than expected, so Duncan poured himself a healthy measure of whiskey and leaned against the gleaming stainless steel workstation waiting to make sure the machine was working correctly and not about to flood his upgraded kitchen. 

The knowledge that he should text Jimmy to explain his lateness made the phone in his pocket feel heavy, but he couldn't make himself pull it out. Whatever words he typed would signal his distress to his perceptive partner and Duncan was not ready for the questions that would follow.

Lost in his thoughts, he twisted the glass watching the soft golden glow play off the sharp silver surface. With a sigh, he raised the glass to his face, but before he could touch it to his lips, his nose was filled with the familiar scent of the malted liquid. His memory triggered a night not so long ago, when Jimmy and he sat up for hours talking about the senseless loss of a friend, who had spent a night of solo drinking and wandered into the sea. That night they swore to each other that they would seek out company, preferably that of one another, when they felt the need to drink away the emotions of a day. Squeezing his eyes shut at the nearly broken promise, Duncan tipped the glass over the sink and listened to the liquor pouring down the drain.

Just as he finished washing the glass by hand, the dishwasher pinged its finished cycle. Duncan lifted the handle to raise the hood and allowed the burst of steam to surround him. He stared at the basket of pots and pans still in the machine and decided that they could remain there until the morning. It was time to go home.

The routine of closing the bistro and pulling on his heavy coat took just a few minutes to complete before he stepped out the door. He pulled the blue and green scarf that had been a present from Mary Perez higher around his neck as a freezing mist had settled into the air. His Range Rover glistened with a fine layer of ice. Experience told him that it would probably take as long to clear the windscreen as it would to walk the few blocks home. Careful of his steps, he started down Hillhead toward the shortcut of walkways that would lead him home. 

Duncan had walked the path enough times since moving in with Jimmy that he didn't have to think about the turns and just allowed his feet to guide him. It wasn't until the yellow glow of the city's sodium lights was pierced by a pinkish hue that he remembered that this path took him right past The Lounge. 

His feet stopped of their own accord and he found himself staring at the wooden door with the neon sign above. It may have been late for leaving the bistro, but it was just the start of the evening for The Lounge. He knew that several of his friends… well, acquaintances would be in there at that moment enjoying a lager or ale or maybe a whiskey. He never drank alone in The Lounge. Once again, his feet moved of their own accord as he crossed the road towards the tempting door. 

While he was still a few yards away, said door suddenly swung open and three women stumbled out, giggling loudly. They were certainly not dressed for the January weather, freezing mist or no. Duncan stopped and watched as they turned and fairly staggered the other way down the street. As they passed under a street lamp, the light hit the head of one of the women and caught her redhead. A memory of such a redhead kneeling before him in a cubicle of the gents' filtered to the front of his brain. That was another thing he never had to worry about at The Lounge. There was always a willing mouth or body to help him release any pent up stress. His feet took a half dozen steps before his heart caught up.

At home he had something so much more than just a willing body, although it was also typically willing. He had the love of his life, the only person, beside his children, he thought of daily. The only person, beside his children, he wanted to be better for, he wanted to prove himself to. He had Jimmy and unlike any relationship before, he wasn't willing to risk that for a drink and willing body.

He got his torturous feet under control and once again headed for home.

It took him only a few minutes to find himself at the top of the steps that would lead him home, but in that time the freezing mist had turned to sleet. Bracing a hand against the stonewall of his home, he carefully made his way down the steps and slipped into the house. A single lamp glowed to illuminate the front hallway enough for Duncan to comfortably see as he slipped out of his coat, but it also signaled that Jimmy had already made his way to bed. 

Standing looking into the living room, Duncan took a deep breath, inhaling the comforting scent of home and Jimmy. Duncan closed his eyes and let his shoulders relax. Suddenly a shiver ran through him as he realized how cold he was. Although Jimmy was asleep, Duncan felt justified in taking a wee nip to chase away the chill. Crossing into the kitchen, he reached for where the whiskey lived. However, instead of his hand closing around glass, it crumbled paper. Looking at the paper he sighed, the paper simply said just come to bed. The ironic thing was that it wasn't Jimmy's handwriting, but his own that marred the clean, white sheet. He had left it there a week or so ago when Jimmy was dealing with a particularly bad case. Shaking his head, he decided to follow his own advice and headed up the stairs.

He stopped in the bathroom and smiled when he saw the silk long underwear he wore to bed in the winter hanging on the towel warmer. He ran a warm flannel over his face before quickly stripping out of his cold, wet clothes and into the warmed underwear. As quietly as he could he sprinted for the loft bedroom.

Slipping into the bed gently, he settled onto his back and stared up at the darkness through the roof light. He hadn't been gentle enough as Jimmy murmured and stretched in his sleep before rolling over to face Duncan. Nudging Duncan's arm up and over Jimmy's shoulders, he pressed his face into the crook of Duncan's neck and kissed the underside of his jaw. A few mumbled words of affection, an arm draped over his midsection, a leg tangled with his own, a couple of wiggles to get comfortable, and Jimmy was back asleep, his breath a steady rhythm.

Duncan tightened his arm around Jimmy's shoulders and brought his other arm up to wrap around his waist. While many of his other lovers liked to sleep with their heads on his shoulder, Jimmy was the only one who made him feel like he was being held as much as he was holding his love. 

Although he knew sleep wasn't going to come, he settled deeper into the mattress. The sleet hitting the roof and Jimmy’s deep steady breaths were the only sounds keeping Duncan’s insomnia company as the night wore on to day. As his thoughts chased themselves in circles in his head, Duncan swore that he was going to talk to Jimmy first thing in the morning and deal with the consequences, whatever they might be.

The sound of Jimmy's alarm signaled that Duncan's long sleepless night was finally over and as Jimmy rolled away from him to silence the offending sound, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. However, the relief turned quickly to confusion as Jimmy didn't lever himself out of bed as he normally did immediately after his alarm. Instead he rolled onto his back and started typing on his phone. When Duncan asked what he was doing, he was answered with a soft, distracted shushing noise. The sound of a text being sent was followed by more typing and another swish of an outgoing message. Once the two messages were sent, Jimmy returned the mobile to the side table and rolled back to Duncan. This time he settled with his head on the pillow so their faces were even. Again Duncan asked what he was doing and this time Jimmy explained that he had texted his team that he was taking the day as well as texting Fiona and asking her to handle opening the bistro and the brunch service. 

Duncan started to complain, but Jimmy merely laid a hand on his chest and told him that they both had very capable teams that could handle themselves without hovering bosses. Gently rubbing his chest, Jimmy asked him to share whatever had upset him so much that he hadn't slept.

Marveling at how a seemingly sleeping Jimmy could have known of his sleepless night, Duncan stayed on his back and began recounting his day. Even though Duncan resolutely stared at the dark sky through the roof light above their bed, Jimmy's hand continued its comforting motion across his chest, only faltering when Duncan reached the part of his narrative about The Lounge.

When Duncan was finally finished, Jimmy stayed silent for several long moments before he reassured Duncan that they would do everything they could to find his wayward waitress. Then he asked a question that nearly shattered Duncan's heart. Jimmy asked if Duncan needed some time away from him to spend time with other people.

Duncan rolled almost violently towards Jimmy, a loud no falling from his lips. Taking Jimmy's face in his hands, Duncan looked into his lover's eyes. He explained how much Jimmy meant to him and how for the first time he had listened to his better angels because what he had to lose was more precious to him than anything he ever had before.

Those sharp detective eyes hidden in gentle, crinkled sockets studied him for a seeming eternity before Jimmy gave one nod. The hand still pressed against Duncan's chest slowly moved to his waist and then up his back as Jimmy drew him closer. Their eyes remained opened and locked on each other as hands traveled well known and well loved paths over the plains and curves of each other's bodies. As the thin, silken fabric of their night clothes was discarded from their bodies, their lips met in dry open mouth kisses mimicking the slow, dragging caresses of their hands. Their coupling an unhurried, tender expression of reverent love, every touch was a measure of devotion. The intimate knowledge of each other's bodies burned through their fingertips and into their skin. They languidly chased orgasms that weren't meant to be explosions of passions, but confirmations of the deep connection between them. Panting breaths filled the minuscule space between them before their lips were once again drawn together in a leisurely press and slide of catching, open mouth kisses. Words of adoration, devotion, and love followed and were lapped up by seeking, needy mouths.

As heart rates settled, Jimmy gathered Duncan close. Nudging noses and cheeks close, he asked if Duncan would be able to get some sleep. An involuntary yawn was the answer as Duncan settled into Jimmy's arms. 

Falling into sleep, Duncan noticed that the sleet had gone, but Jimmy's deep, even breaths remained. 

**Author's Note:**

> I am pretty sure that walking from the area I have mentally put the bistro to the Perez-Hunter home would take you nowhere near The Lounge, but needs must!


End file.
